The rumour was that the Jays went hard after Yu Darvish in a similar bid process two year ago. Darvish went to Texas -- after the Rangers shelled out a reported $51.7 million bid, and then signed him to a $60 million contract for six years -- and then won 29 games in two seasons in the Lone Star State.

The word is that Tanaka, who went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Japan's Nippon Professional baseball league last season, is even better than Darvish and almost all of the big spenders in Major League Baseball are going to take a run a bidding for him.

But while Anthopoulos won't say what his plans are, the Japanese media here at the MLB GM meetings certainly believe that the Jays are in the running. Anthopoulos was asked repeatedly what his plans for Tanaka are and what he thinks of the Japanese free agent. The Jays have sent representatives to scout Tanaka in the past.

"We never get into who we're going to be after, but I think I can say generally speaking that every team in baseball would love to have a guy like Tanaka," said Anthopoulos. "He's very talented, no doubt about it."

The Japanese media also asked about Munenori Kawasaki, who was a huge fan favourite in Toronto last season, though the Jays declined his $1 million contract option on Oct. 31, making him a free agent.

"Right now, he's going to explore some other options, but we're definitely leaving the door open for him to come back," said Anthopoulos, adding that he believes Kawasaki deserves a major league contract.

"I don't know if we'll be able to give him that, but definitely he deserves whatever comes his way," said the GM. "He's a great teammate, a great person, he had a good season for us and Toronto and all of Canada fell in love with him."

Anthopoulos told the Japanese contingent here that Canadians have an affinity for underdogs like Kawasaki.

"Look at John McDonald and guys like that in any sport," said Anthopoulos. "Guys that play the game hard. I think Torontonians and Canadians appreciate the effort those guys put forth."

The rumour was that the Jays went hard after Yu Darvish in a similar bid process two year ago. Darvish went to Texas -- after the Rangers shelled out a reported $51.7 million bid, and then signed him to a $60 million contract for six years -- and then won 29 games in two seasons in the Lone Star State.

The word is that Tanaka, who went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Japan's Nippon Professional baseball league last season, is even better than Darvish and almost all of the big spenders in Major League Baseball are going to take a run a bidding for him.